Two minutes is a bit much, the water would be far too cool. If you don't have a thermometer just use the general rule of 10-20 seconds off the boil. In the average scenario that will leave the water at around 195-200F, which is what you want for french press.

FreshnessCoffee has a short shelf life. We recommend drinking coffee no more than 30 days after it is roasted. Many roasters suggest that vacuum packaging and proper storing will allow coffee to be consumed without freshness loss for up to a year. However, we feel that coffee loses its flavor much more quickly. Thus, we suggest buying only what you will drink or giveaway in a month.How can you tell if a coffee is fresh?Coffee in bags should be dated. If it doesn’t have a “born on date” or an expiration date that comes up, then the roaster isn’t paying much attention to freshness.Bulk coffee can also be judged for freshness. Coffee contains natural oils. In dark roasted coffee, these oils come to the surface right away. In lighter roasted coffees, these oils take a few days to appear. Thus, only buy dark-roasted coffee that is oily and light-roasted coffee that is dry.Buy whole bean - We also suggest only buying whole bean coffee. We’re happy to grind your coffee. However, we strongly recommend using this ground coffee within three days.Coffee contains natural gasses. These gasses slowly escape from the beans. Most specialty roasters package beans in bags with one-way valves. This allows the gasses to escape while keeping out the air that would destroy the beans. If fresh coffee were to be put in air tight bags without one-way valves, the escaping gasses would blow the bag or can apart. Grinding coffee removes all the gasses and exposes the beans to lots of air thus you want to get the freshest ground coffee.There is only one good argument for buying ground coffee — and this only applies to buying coffee that is ground to order (if it’s already ground, it’s already stale). Only commercial grinders can uniformly grind coffee. Your home grinder may produce some large and some small grind particles. A more uniform grind will produce a better cup. However, this small case for having your local roaster grind your coffee doesn’t outweigh the freshness factor.Storage – Coffee’s three worst enemies (not including big corporations who can’t possibly control quality) are light, air and moisture. The longer coffee is exposed to air, light or moisture, the quicker it will go stale. Therefore, always store coffee in an air tight container that blocks the light.If the coffee is going to be drunk within three weeks, the airtight container on your counter is all you need. If you are going to store the beans for longer than three weeks, then we’d suggest putting the airtight container in the freezer. Warning: moisture is coffee’s enemy. Therefore, put the container right back in the freezer after taking out the beans you need for that day. Don’t let the beans thaw while you go through your morning breakfast ritual. If you do, moisture will ruin the beans.Grinding – We highly recommend grinding your coffee immediately before brewing. As we said, grinding makes coffee go stale faster. Go ahead and invest $20 or so for a half-way decent grinder. Grind according to machine’s instructions. The better the grinder the more consistent in size will be coffee particles.Brewing – There are so many ways to brew coffee that we couldn’t possibly get into all of them. We’ll just say that DON’T EVER USE A PERCULATOR. Use a brewer that only lets the water go through the ground coffee once. Or use a French press.However you brew, start with two tablespoons of ground coffee per eight ounces of brewed coffee. Adjust proportion NOT THE GRIND according to taste.Use good, fresh cold water. Coffee is 98% water. Thus, if you don’t like the taste of your water you won’t like the taste of the coffee.

Hi,Loved your article. My friend also uses the chopsticks trick.I purchased a Bodum burr coffee grinder. Have not received it yet, but was wondering what setting do you use for the press? It has 14 grind settings.

I liked the article. I hate instructions that specify amounts of coffee in tablespoons, since it leaves so much variation. But then you must adjust to personal taste anyway so I guess it doesn't matter in the end.

I end up using about 8g per 4oz for boldly roasted coffees (sumatra is my fave) - I like it strong, but easing up a little on the concentration lets the flavor come out a bit more.

I was wondering if people always heat water in a different container and pour the water over the beans? At work, I generally heat the water in my Bodum 4 cup using the microwave, and then stir in the grounds. Would it be worthwhile to get an electric kettle or just a different container to heat water in?

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